Japan Is On The Wrong Side Of History On Whaling

<p>File photo: Sea Shepherd / Simon Ager</p>
<p>File photo: Sea Shepherd / Simon Ager</p>

Japan has fooled all of the nations some of the time and still fools some of the nations some of the time but they can no longer fool all of the nations all of the time. Japanese "scientific" whaling is a fraud. It is a lie and it is a barbaric, inhumane flouting of international law. Japanese whaling has been found to be in contempt of the Australian Federal Court. It has been condemned as a fraud by the International Court of Justice, and it has not been sanctioned by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). And now The New York Times has made their position clear on the bogus research activities of the Japanese whalers.

There will be no whale slaughter for the 2014 to 2015 season. Japan has set a target for 333 whales for the 2015 to 2016 season. They have not been able to get even that number of whales due to interventions by Sea Shepherd Global and Sea Shepherd Australia ships over the last few years. They need at least 600 whales to break even, so mass subsidies will continue to support this pathetic industry at the cost to Japanese taxpayers and to the shame of all Japanese citizens.

Japan wants to continue killing whales for scientific research that simply is research in name only, for the purpose of providing whale meat to people who do not wish to eat it. The meat is stored in warehouses for years at great expense with the hope that the people will change their minds, forgetting that the only reason Japanese people ate whale meat in the first place is that after World War II they did not have any choice. It beat boiling leather shoes for soup.

Whaling and the dolphin slaughter in Taiji are turning Japan into an embarrassment in the international community, a nation that kills what most of the rest of the world cherishes and respects. People like Joji Morishita, Japan's Commissioner to the IWC, need to realize that Japan is no longer a nation of desperate blubber chewers. Japan is far too sophisticated and aware of the serious ecological and conservation issues in the world. The Institute for Cetacean Research simply does not represent modern Japanese views.

Whaling is a dead industry. The problem is that entrenched Japanese bureaucrats and politicians have not accepted the inevitable. Their salaries and kickbacks depend on whaling.

In order to resume commercial whaling, the factory ship Nisshin Maru needs to be replaced. This will be an investment of between $100 and $200 million dollars. This will be difficult to justify, which explains the heavy lobbying of the politicians.

Will they get the money? I would not be surprised. Politicians everywhere love to waste money in exchange for a kickback.